The Corner House – KGB Building

I have written and published this post yesterday, but somehow it deleted itself. I do not know how or why, but that means for me that I have to write it again.
Hope you can understand that!

KGB Building

So I just start again. When I visited Riga I went to an old KGB Building, known as the Corner House. Today, it has the Museum of of the Occupation of Latvia inside. It is one of the largest private museums in Latvia and owned as well as administered by a non-governmental organization, The Association of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.

During the occupation of the Soviet Union, political prisoners were kept there. You can have a tour through the old cells, exercise yard, interrogation rooms and the cellar.

People died there. And you always have that in your mind. So maybe you can understand why it was a strange feeling to walk around there.
If you have ever visited an old concentration camp or anything similar you maybe know that feeling. Nowadays you walk there and see the cells for example, they tell you about what happened there but no one can really imagine what it had to be like when you were kept there.
We walked pass the room were the people were killed – not a nice feeling. I could not stay there long and went back outside.

cells

We were told that the floor was covered with a red carpet, but not because they thought it would looks beautiful or because they thought the prisoners were little superstars, no it had a more practical reason: if prisoners came back covered in blood by an interrogation and the blood dropped down, you could not see it.

a cell

Here is a brief overview of the history:
Latvia was under occupation from 1940-1991. On 17 June 1940 the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Latvia. Just a year later, National-Socialist Germany invaded the Soviet Union and occupied Latvia. Destructive war happened and after that, Latvia was re-occupied by the Soviet Union.
The consequences for Latvia were disastrous. Latvia lost about one third of it´s population. Ten thousands lost their lives in the Holocaust , political murders or war action.